Tag Archives: Military-Industrial Complex

To mark Earth Day, GDAMS are sharing this comprehensive toolkit

To mark Earth Day, GDAMS are sharing this comprehensive toolkit

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GDAMS and Earth Day – April 22

Why Is It Important To Talk About Military Spending On Earth Day?

Join us this Earth Day in our GDAMS campaign: Demilitarize for Climate Justice!

Militarism is deeply connected to the climate crisis. By prioritizing domination and fossil fuel extraction, it fuels conflict and drives environmental harm. Military operations require vast amounts of energy, and armed forces are among the world’s largest institutional consumers of fossil fuels and emitters of greenhouse gases.

As military spending continues to rise, it not only fuels wars and increases emissions but also diverts vital resources away from urgently needed climate solutions.

This Earth Day, join us as part of the Global Days of Action on Military Spending to call for change. This day, coordinated by the Arms, Militarism and Climate Justice Working Group, reflects growing awareness that peace and climate justice are closely interconnected.

TPNS contributed to the GDAMS Toolkit 2026 document below.

Why Talk About Military Spending On Earth Day_Download
COP30 REPORT: DISARMING THE CLIMATE CRISIS

COP30 REPORT: DISARMING THE CLIMATE CRISIS

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Our COP30 official event analysed six interconnected dimensions of this crisis: military emissions, military spending, fossil fuels and conflict, extractivism in Colombia and the Philippines, fossil-fuel-enabled occupation and genocide in Palestine, and nuclear injustice in the Pacific. Collectively, the speakers demonstrated how feminist and peace-based approaches provide essential pathways to climate justice.

COP30 Disarming the Climate Crisis ReportDownload
New publications: Report “Climate Reparations for Military Emissions” and Briefing “Climate Collateral (2025 update)”

New publications: Report “Climate Reparations for Military Emissions” and Briefing “Climate Collateral (2025 update)”

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We published the following two publications for COP30:

Report “Climate Reparations for Military Emissions” and

Briefing “Climate Collateral (2025 update): Why the military’s impact on climate change can no longer be ignored” Continue reading →

New publications & UN Summit of the Future

New publications & UN Summit of the Future

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September sees two major Global Weeks of Action – the Global Week of Action for Climate Finance and a Fossil-Free Future (13-20 Sept) and the first Global Week of Action for Peace and Climate Justice (21-28 Sept). Both address the global military’s role and responsibility in both GHG emissions and runaway military spending as an urgent source to tap for climate finance.

TPNS’s Transform Defence project released two publications to mark these international weeks of action, and, notably, also to mark the UN Summit of the Future.

UN SUMMIT OF THE FUTURE: Climate Change, Climate Finance and the Global Military

As the world gathers for the UN Summit of the Future followed by the General Assembly debate, peace and co-operation is at the heart of much of the discussion.

Urgent pressure needed to address the role and responsibility of runaway military expenditure in the climate emergency through the allocation of trillions of dollars to fossil-fuel reliant militaries and associated (supply-chain) industries instead of climate finance.  This briefing was prepared and shared with many of the delegates to the Summit.

WORKING NOTES JOURNAL

‘War and Peace—Exploring Irish Neutrality‘

Published by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice

‘Overturning the economics of war to deliver a co-operative future and peaceful green prosperity’

This essay was commissioned by Working Notes and explores the ecological aspects of conflict—with a particular focus on the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the military—through an economic lens. It asks what must be done to change course if humanity and our home planet is to reverse the current trajectory.

Global Week Of Action For Peace & Climate Justice

Global Week Of Action For Peace & Climate Justice

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21-28 September 2024

This first annual week of action for peace and climate justice runs from 21-28 September. More than 50 events are planned in countries including Australia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Germany, Malawi, Mexico, India, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and the USA, as well as many online.

The week of action aims to raise awareness of the links between war, militarism and climate injustice. It also coincides with the UN Summit of the Future.

Find out more and how to take part https://climatemilitarism.org/weekofaction/.

THIS YEAR’S THEME: DIVEST FROM WAR – INVEST IN CLIMATE JUSTICE

The world’s wealthiest countries have consistently failed to meet targets to provide $100 billion in climate finance to help countries suffering the worst impacts of climate breakdown. Meanwhile, there always money for war: in 2023 global military spending rose for the ninth year in a row, reaching a record high of $2.44 trillion (an increase of 6.8 per cent in real terms from 2022). 2023 also saw the hottest day – highest global temperatures – ever recorded.

The week of action is being facilitated by a sub-committee of the Arms, Militarism and Climate Justice Working Group. Continue reading →

Global Week Of Action For Climate Finance And A Fossil-Free Future

Global Week Of Action For Climate Finance And A Fossil-Free Future

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As we head towards COP29, the issues of climate finance and a fossil fuel phase-out towards a just energy transition are ever more critical for climate action. The upcoming UN General Assembly, the UN Summit of the Future and the Global Renewables Summit all taking place one after the other in September provide an important opportunity to reiterate our demands and escalate public pressure to compel governments, international institutions and corporations to listen and take action.

The governments of the Global North have consistently failed for decades to undertake their fair share of climate action both domestically and internationally. This fair share includes the delivery of climate finance for the Global South, an obligation that they committed to as parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Climate finance is also part of reparations for climate debt they owe to the people of the South for historical and continuing harms caused by their disproportionately large contributions to the climate crisis.

https://payupandphaseout.org/

September 19th – Demilitarisation Day of Action

Pay Up and Phase Out.

The global military – in peace and war – is a significant contributor to climate change. And these emissions correlate to ever rising military spending on fossil fuel reliant hardware.

Increasing militarisation of world affairs is not the answer to climate change – it is at the heart of the problem. There can be no secure nation without a climate-secure planet.

Urgent pressure is needed to address the role and responsibility of runaway military expenditure in the climate emergency through the allocation of trillions of dollars to fossil-fuel reliant militaries and associated (supply-chain) industries instead of climate finance.

Global North governments should end public subsidies for fossil fuels. Tax systems should be reformed, so polluters and profiteers pay their dues.

And with the expansion of a fossil fuelled global arms race well underway and new ‘cold war’ rhetoric rising again, the vast amounts of government spending on weapons and military operations that harm people, destroy the environment while also being a massive source of carbon emissions, should be diverted towards programs for climate justice and our planet’s security.

The various materials below mark this Global Week of Action and Day of Action on Demilitarisation

Summit of the Future: briefing & accompanying letter to UN General Secretary

Download: “TPNS BRIEFING SUMMIT OF THE FUTURE 2024“ [PDF]

Released September 18th with an accompanying letter to the UN Secretary General. Continue reading →

Media release: NATO 2% SPENDING GOAL COULD DIVERT $2.6 TRILLION FROM CLIMATE FINANCE BY 2028

Media release: NATO 2% SPENDING GOAL COULD DIVERT $2.6 TRILLION FROM CLIMATE FINANCE BY 2028

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Embargoed: 00:01am CET, 17 October

NEW RESEARCH: NATO 2% SPENDING GOAL COULD DIVERT $2.6 TRILLION FROM CLIMATE FINANCE BY 2028 

NATO’s goal of 2% spending of GDP on the military will accelerate climate breakdown by diverting millions of dollars from climate finance and increasing greenhouse gas emissions, concludes a new report that urgently calls for a ‘climate dividend’ similar to the ‘peace dividend’ that was won with the end of the Cold War.

The report, Climate Crossfire, produced by Tipping Point North South (UK), together with Transnational Institute (International) and Stop Wapenhandel (Netherlands), estimates the likely financial implications as well as increased greenhouse gas emissions that would result if all NATO members meet their commitment to increase military spending to a minimum of 2% of GDP. 

The report finds that:

  • NATO’s military spending this year – $1.26 trillion-  would pay for 12 years of promised climate finance of $100 billion a year.
  • If all NATO members meet its 2% military spending targets, it would divert an estimated additional US$2.57 trillion by 2028 away from climate spending, enough to pay for climate adaptation costs for all low- and middle-income countries for seven years.
  • NATO’s estimated military carbon footprint this year – 205 million tCO2e – is comparable to the total annual greenhouse gas emissions of many countries. If NATO’s militaries were a country, it would rank 40th in the world in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.
  • If all NATO members meet its 2% military spending targets, this would lead to an estimated additional 467 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
  • NATO members export arms to 39 of the 40 most climate-vulnerable countries, fuelling conflict and repression at a dangerous moment of climate breakdown.

Continue reading →

New article published in Degrowth Journal

New article published in Degrowth Journal

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We are delighted to be included in the inaugural volume of  Degrowth Journal organised as a free, open-access, international, trans-disciplinary, and peer-reviewed journal that focuses on advancing the goals of degrowth. Our article wanted to draw largely unaddressed connections between degrowth and the global military. Continue reading →

10 Talking Points for a Difficult Conversation 

10 Talking Points for a Difficult Conversation 

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To mark UN International Day of Peace TPNS is releasing its latest publication How to Transform Defence for Sustainable Human Safety: 10 Talking Points for a Difficult Conversation.

It is an attempt to offer up a framework that tries to envision how we get a much better deal for the world’s citizens from the abject failure of past and current foreign and defence policies that sees us stagger from one war to the next; the world carved up according to spheres of influence; stupid narrow mindsets prevailing over catastrophic climate change and more than 6 million dead due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is an attempt to think through the ‘how, what and why’ of a difficult conversation – the move from 19th and 20th century framing of foreign and defence policy such that it really is fit for purpose in a 21st and 22nd century climate changed world, all the time fully recognising that every person, community, society, nation, region needs protection from aggressors and terrorists and it is the job of government to defend its citizens from such threats.

But change it must. Continue reading →

Stockholm+50 and Global Military Emissions: Ideas for Discussion

Stockholm+50 and Global Military Emissions: Ideas for Discussion

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To mark the UN gathering Stockholm+50, Transform Defence has published its briefing Stockholm+50 and Global Military Emissions: Ideas for Discussion. We are honoured to have the foreword written by Professor Saleemul Huq , Chair of the Expert Advisory Panel for the Climate Vulnerable Forum. Continue reading →

New report on securitisation of aid

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  • Syria case may be ‘tip of the iceberg’ for fund backing some of world’s worst security forces
  • Secretive Conflict, Stability and Security Fund uses £500m of aid money
  • Government accused of using loophole to fund discredited consultancy

The controversial cross-government fund behind the British aid project in Syria which has today been suspended amid claims that money was reaching jihadist groups should be shut down, according to campaign group Global Justice Now, which has released a new report on the fund.

The report lifts the lid on one of the British government’s most secretive funds, which is behind military and security projects in around 70 countries including Bahrain, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Iraq and Nigeria. The billion-pound pot, known as the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund, spends over £500 million of British aid and is overseen by the National Security Council, chaired by the Prime Minister. Neither the public nor MPs are able to properly scrutinise the fund due to a serious lack of transparency, the report finds.
Continue reading →

Interactive Map: European weapons and Refugees

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Valuable resource from Centre Delàs:

Interactive map « European weapons and refugees »

The purpose of this interactive map is to highlight the link between European arms export and flows of refugees and internally displaced persons, in order to determine whether there is any direct or indirect responsibility of EU Member States for situations of insecurity and violence that drive millions of people to flee their homes every year.

A second objective of this tool is to stress their (ir)responsibility in European arms export authorization or realization as well as their inadequate compliance of the existing legislation, established by the Common Position 2008/944/CFSP of December 8, 2008, which sets up 22 weapons categories including ammunition, light weapons, aircraft and warships, military transport vehicles and all types of military technology for military purposes. On the basis of the criteria set out in the Common Position, the relationship between the European legislation on arms export and situations of insecurity leading to movements of refugees and displaced persons can be established.

http://www.centredelas.org/en/database/arms-trade/interactive-map-arms-trade-and-refugees

More than 100 F-35s in service can’t fight

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The U.S. military has signaled that it might cancel essential upgrades for more than 100 early model F-35 stealth fighters flown by the Air Force, rendering the radar-evading jets incompatible with many of the latest weapons.

In that case, some 6 percent of the flying branch’s planned 1,700-strong F-35 fleet would be unfit for combat, sticking U.S. taxpayers with a $20 billion tab for fighters… that can’t fight. Continue reading →

Wonder Woman and the Military-Industrial Complex

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In short, this is straight-up propaganda for the military-industrial complex. It would have looked and sounded identical had it been scripted by a joint team from the Pentagon and the Israel Defense Forces.

My reticence to review the film has lifted after reading the latest investigations of Tom Secker and Matthew Alford into the manifold ways the U.S. military and security services interfere in Hollywood, based on a release of 4,000 pages of documents under Freedom of Information requests.

In their new book “National Security Cinema,” the pair argue that the Pentagon, CIA and National Security Agency have meddled in the production of at least 800 major Hollywood movies and 1,000 TV titles. That is likely to be only the tip of the iceberg, as they concede:

“It is impossible to know exactly how widespread this military censorship of entertainment is because many files are still being withheld.” Continue reading →

Military tourism in Israel

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It was only a matter of time before local entrepreneurs figured out they could channel Israel’s vast experience in war and counterterrorism in this direction. Today, about half a dozen facilities around the country offer tourists the opportunity to learn from Israeli combat officers, in most cases graduates of elite units. (Understanding that they have nothing to sell the locals because military service is compulsory in Israel, these businesses only target tourists.)

At Caliber 3, the two-hour “shooting adventure” – for which the group from Hong Kong has signed up – includes a simulation of a suicide bombing in a Jerusalem marketplace, immediately followed by a stabbing attack, a live demonstration with attack dogs and a sniper tournament. The cost of this basic package is $115 per adult and $85 per child, with discounts available for large groups. Continue reading →

Don’t Buy Don’t Sell in the Trump era

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After authorising the firing of 59 Tomahawk missiles (each costing around $1.5 million) at a Syrian airbase with no apparent consequential strategic purpose and diminishing none of the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons capability, the maker of the Tomahawk missiles, Raytheon’s stock rose sharply, adding more than $1 billion to its market capitalisation. Other missile and weapons manufacturers, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics, also saw their stock rose considerably – collectively gaining nearly $5 billion in market value. This on its own may not matter much, after all, which president of the USA has not dropped  expensive bombs on some ‘remote’ nations of the world. But this time may be different.

Trump used anti-establishment and anti-corporate language during his election campaign to distinguish himself from all other candidates – he opposed neoconservative foreign policy, financial and corporate interests, notably Goldman Sachs. Now, after his inauguration, you can hardly see much difference between his foreign policy plans and policies proposed by neoconservatives. His cabinet looks like a ‘who’s who’ of Goldman Sachs alumni. He ratcheted up the military tension in the South China Sea, ordered a failed major special force operation in Yemen, and now seems to be pushing the USA to the edge of nuclear war with North Korea. The more he uses militaristic confrontational rhetoric and actions, the more ‘presidential’ he  looks in the eyes of the mainstream media. He seems ‘unstoppable’.

But is he, really?

Continue reading →

Peace Movement in the Age of Trump

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Throughout those conversations, there was consensus that the contemporary peace movement was not nearly powerful enough to mount a serious challenge to the forces of American empire and militarism. As the challenges facing that movement came into focus for me, so did their scale. It is hard to imagine a more difficult target, from an organizing perspective, than military policy. The US empire today leaves a great deal of ruin in its wake, but its cost is only vaguely felt by most Americans, while its gargantuan profits are pocketed by a few and its most recognized organization—the military itself—is widely celebrated as the most trusted public institution.

In the wake of the election, as the need for a constituency to challenge American militarism grows in urgency, how might such challenges be met? Doing so will require reimagining the constituency, strategy, and purpose of the movement itself. It is not at all clear that a “peace movement” or even an “antiwar movement,” as those have generally been conceived, will suffice. Rather, we need a movement that can speak to the anger that so many Americans feel toward the corporate powers that dominate our politics. Such a movement would expose how militarism is not immune to that influence but is particularly beholden to it. Can such a movement be organized? …
Continue reading →

Trump’s Military Budget Doesn’t Add Up

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And while Trump says increased military spending will reassert America’s strength, the United States already is the world’s 800-pound gorilla. In 2015, it was responsible for more than one third of all military spending on the planet. China and Russia, the United States’ main military competitors, don’t even come close.

Trump’s budget plans also feature drastic cuts to international and environmental spending. He’s reportedly pushing for a 24 percent cut to the EPA budget and a 37 percent cut to the State Department and USAID budget. While such reductions would have profound effects on these agencies, they are a drop in the bucket compared with the Pentagon budget. In 2016, the Department of State and USAID received an estimated $50.6 billion, or 1.3 percent of all federal spending. The EPA received $8.3 billion, or 0.2 percent of all federal spending. Meanwhile, the Pentagon got 15 percent.
Continue reading →

SIPRI: Top 100 arms sales for 2015 still are 37 per cent higher than those for 2002

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Sales of the world’s 100 largest arms-producing and military services companies totalled $370.7 billion in 2015. Compared with 2014, this is a slight decline of 0.6 per cent. While this continues the downward trend in arms sales that began in 2011, it signals a significant slowdown in the pace of decline. However, despite the decrease, Top 100 arms sales for 2015 are 37 per cent higher than those for 2002, when SIPRI began reporting corporate arms sales.

Companies headquartered in the United States and Western Europe have
dominated the list of Top 100 arms-producing and military services companies
since 2002. And, true to form, this was the case for 2015: with sales reaching $305.4 billion, companies based in the USA and Western Europe accounted for 82.4 per cent of the Top 100 arms sales. Continue reading →